Back in the Saddle Again

I just got back from Indiana yesterday, after a great visit with my daughter Katie, who lives there. We had a great time. Went to a place called HuHot - it's like a Chinese buffet, but the difference is  you pick out exactly what you want to eat, and what sauces you want, put it into a bowl, and the guy in the middle, with the big round cooking surface, cooks it for you. All you can eat. They also bring rice or tortillas to your table, no extra charge. The food was delicious, and fun to watch it being cooked. They even ask if you have food allergies, just in case. One night, for dinner, I baked a chicken with amaretto and lemon; it turned out well. It's nice to get away for a couple of days, no computer access, just people.

But I'm back, so now of course I'm thinking, like I usually do, about different things. And something I've been meaning to comment on ever since it happened.  A lot of people are broken up over the death of Amy Winehouse. I ask myself why? Sure, it's tragic that someone dies before their time, and 27 is certainly too young. But at the same time I look at her life and think - she did it to herself. That may seem harsh to some, who may protest that she was an addict and couldn't help herself. Oh yeah? Well, from what little I saw of her (I wasn't a follower of her career or anything), she seemed to revel in the type of behavior she was supposed to avoid. She seemed to live for that addition. In my book, she made her choices, and she lived by them. Or in this case died.  Do I blame the people in her life for not stepping up? Not if they tried, and I'm guessing they did. She seemed determined to self-destruct, and she did. I'm more angry that she wasted a talent. Her talent should have been her concern, not her lifestyle, but you see where her priority was. Again, her choice.

So why is it that death confers almost automatic sainthood? That you can vilify someone for years but let them kick off, and gee, what a swell person he/she was, I sure miss them. How hypocritical is that? Before she died, the press made no bones about making fun of Princess Diana, the things she did, the people she saw - anything and everything. Hell, even her own husband showed her contempt and disrespect by sleeping with the horse-faced longterm girlfriend (now wife). Seriously? He preferred that to Diana? But then Diana died, and she became almost a goddess. Elvis was at the end of his career - fat, aging, pill-popping, unpopular. His music was going nowhere fast. But death rescued him from all that mediocrity. Now he makes more money, via Graceland, than he did when he was alive.

Go figure.

Look at Michael Jackson - accused child molester, strange hermit with a predilection for surgery. Then suddenly he dies and his records start going like hot cakes. Frankly, I never saw why he was designated the King of Pop. He had some good moments, but king? I don't see it. Before Thriller, he couldn't get anyone to notice him, just a part of the Jackson Five. It's got some decent songs on it, but revolutionary? Hardly. I think the poor man was raked over the coals unnecessarily while alive because of things he couldn't help. I think the surgeries were because he had a pigmentation disease he was trying to control (although he did seem to be trying to be more Caucasian, I must admit). Do I believe he molested little kids? No, I don't. I think he never grew up, and he looked on them as his peers, not sexual objects.  I feel sorry for his kids. They seem to be good kids, with good heads on their shoulders. To be relegated to being raised by that family - I suspect Michael would not be happy about that at all. That family has serious issues. Those kids aren't his biologically, surely. I mean they're white than white. So I guess he paid for the surrogate plus daddies for all of them. I just hope they'll be alright.

Okay, enough ranting. Tomorrow is another Sy Fy Sunday. I'm working on a new collaboration with co-author SL Danielson. The first one, My Fair Vampire, releases October 8th. I can't wait to see the cover - with that special Reese Dante touch. We've just submitted the first book in a new series that we're calling The Mark of Love and are hard at work on the second - it's about two Georgia teens who have to deal with being gay in the rural South.

Besides that, I have a few sequels that I'm working on, as well as continuing the series I had going at Wicked Nights, which aren't there any more, since the publisher went co-op and my stories were taken off the site. I'll finish them and sub them, though, so that's cool. I  have my continuing flash fiction series to work on - Yes He's My Ex and Lust never Sleeps. New Max, new Leo, and new Dark Love. Continuation of Pavane for a Proud Prince. My Insomniac Sommelier story for my Delectable Dishes anthology. And my new story, Cheatin' Heart.

Damn, I love writing!  It's what I was born to do!

Got questions, comments, suggestions? I'd love to hear from you!

Until next time, take care!

♥ Julie